Osas Musa In Benin
A former minister of State for Works under ex-President Goodluck
Jonathan’s administration, Engr. Chris Ogiemwonyi on Wednesday
queried the existence of dual dollar exchange rates in the country;
declaring that the development is “supervised corruption”.
He wondered why rate duplicity is maintained with the current
interbank dollar rate at N305 while the parallel market sells the
dollar at N425.
“This dual rate is corruption and arranged to favour the cabal who has
been dashed billions of dollars via CBN subsidized dollar sales.
“The dual rate also maintains a competition for dollars which hikes
the price at the parallel market with rebound effects on the
inter-bank rate,” he said.
Ogiemwonyi made the claim as the guest lecturer of the University of
Benin 42nd Founders’ Day lecture. The lecture was titled: “Hard times
For These Times: The Think Factory Guide to Action”.
He said: “why is there a black market Bureau De Change in Nigeria?
Why does the country have two dollar rates? This is supervised
corruption and it is the main reason why the naira remains in free and
turbulent fall.
“The Central Bank continues to play games with Nigeria, refusing to
fully devalue the naira,” he said.
Continuing, Ogiemwonyi said the nation can only overcome its present
economic recession if it truly devalued the naira which according to
him, would therefore remove pressure on the Bureau de Change (BDC).
Besides, he described the CBN’s import ban list as impartial to the
economy pointing out that “import ban lists have always been set up in
Nigeria’s history to promote monopoly”.
Earlier, The Vice Chancellor of UNIBEN, Prof. Faraday Orumwense said
the Founders’ Day lecture was part of activities to mark the
institution’s 42 convocation anniversary.
